Dumas, Ford win Pikes Peak despite stopping on course

Romain Dumas took his fifth outright victory on the famed Pikes Peak hillclimb in Ford’s F-150 Lightning SuperTruck electric demonstrator, despite briefly stopping and having to restart.

Dumas explained that the glitch, which required him to perform a power cycle, had never occurred before in the prototype’s two-year development and was estimated to have cost about 26 seconds.

But the Frenchman’s time of 8m53.553s over the 12.42-mile course, which was just shy of his 8m47.682 in 2023 aboard Ford’s SuperVan 4.2, was still good enough to set the fastest time. overall quick out of 61 entries.

Dumas, who holds the full course record of 7m57.148 from 2018 in the Volkswagen ID R, admitted that “it was quite stressful, I have to say, the most stressful so far since I’ve been here at Pikes Peak”.

“I don’t know what happened at first, the car just shut off completely by itself, that’s never happened before,” he told Pikes Peak’s YouTube channel.

The two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner revealed that confusion ensued after he had restarted over whether he would be able to complete his run at the 4,302m summit.

“They told me on the radio that it was a red flag, because I guess they saw that they stopped me on the track,” he explained.

Romain Dumas, 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning SuperTruck

Photo by: Ford Performance

“But I’ve already restarted, so I didn’t know if I should stop or not. There was a bit of confusion, but in the first split, I know exactly how many hours I should have.

“I saw that I was 26 seconds, compared my disposition [qualifying time] slower. So I said, ‘OK, I just need to push and I should be fine.’ So it takes a few seconds.”

Dumas, who scored his first victory at Pikes Peak in 2014 before conquering the race to the clouds in 2016, 2017 and 2018, added: “Pikes Peak is so hard because you have one shot, one chance, one run. And if you have a small issue, or a big issue, you can lose everything.

“We have prepared everything perfectly, in two years this is the first time this problem has occurred, I don’t know why.

“I happened to be reading all the procedures and arrived to restart the car, so at this time I was quite happy that last night I was reading again what to do in case [an] issue!”

The F-150 Lightning SuperTruck, co-developed by Austrian company STARD, produces over 1,600 horsepower and runs on custom Pirelli P-Zero tires.

It is the latest product of the Blue Oval’s strategy to develop demonstrators outside the regulations of existing electric racing championships, as it continues to build towards its return to Formula 1 in association with Red Bull in 2026.

Its four-pronged motorsport strategy is complemented by off-road disciplines, including the World Rally Championship and from 2025 the Dakar Rally, and its programs with Mustangs in GT3, GT4, Australian Supercars and NASCAR.

“Ford EV’s progress in taking on and completing the toughest challenges is a great testament to the hard work and dedication our teams have put into the program,” noted Ford Performance Motorsports Global Director Mark Rushbrook.

“We learned a lot from the SuperVan 4.2 on last year’s hill climb at Pikes Peak International and were able to apply that knowledge to this year’s run. It’s only up and up from here.”

“Achieving this amazing feat was no small feat,” said Sriram Pakkam, Formula 1 and High Performance EV Manager at Ford Performance Motorsports.

“This was a real team effort across the board, from our super talented aerodynamicists to our engine specialists.

“We also had to work as a team to sweat the details like keeping the weight down while maximizing downforce and I think the team did a fantastic job.”

Meanwhile, Hyundai World Rally Championship driver Dani Sordo won the Exhibition class. The Spaniard’s IONIQ 5 N TA, also electric, set a time of 9m30.852s.